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Problem adding transition to compound clips – Video
I do a lot of work with keyed footage. Generally I assemble the keyed footage into the timeline, then go back and add backgrounds. When I do this, it gets really messy, because I haven’t found a way be able to group the foreground and background clip into a coumpound clip and still be able to add a transition with out getting the ‘insufficient media’ warning. I found a klunky work-around, but it usually ends up displacing other clips farther down the timeline.
Here’s my typical workflow for assembling a video made from green screen footage:
1.) Pull clips from bin/browser to the timeline to make a coherent story
2.) Key and color correct
3.) Deal with audio: mix, compressor, eq, add sfx, etc.
4.) Add background video/still under my keyed footage.
5.) Cut/Scale/Adjust background where necessary
6.) Watch through video for continuity and add transitions where necessary.With keyed footage, you need to add transitions to the foreground and background together, so I group them into a compound clip. But as soon as you make a compound clip, fcpx “forgets” that the original clip had additional media on the front and back end.
Here’s a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxZ5n–bJ4gDoes anybody have a workflow for the kind of stuff I’m doing that does work?
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3 Replies
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This works like any other clip, if there’s no media, it can’t do the transition, unless you overlap it.
So, assuming you don’t want to break apart your clip items add heads and tails:
Why not just keep your backgrounds as connected clips?
Or another easy way would be to put the second compound clip above the first compound clip as a connected clip, and add the transition there?
Jeremy
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[Jeremy Garchow] “This works like any other clip, if there’s no media, it can’t do the transition, unless you overlap it.”
If clip A and clip B both have 1:00 of head/tail, then you make them a compound clip, you loose the head/tail.
[Jeremy Garchow] “So, assuming you don’t want to break apart your clip items add heads and tails:”
This is what I’ve resorted to doing, but sometimes it ends up displacing connected clips later on in the timeline. (I havn’t quite figured out why yet.)
[Jeremy Garchow] ”
Why not just keep your backgrounds as connected clips?”Whenever possible, I do keep the BG as connected clips. The trouble comes when I need to have a transition (other than a simple crossfade or dip to color) between two clips. For instance a transition where the keyed foreground & background clip, scale down and fly away.
But anyway, thanks for your response! It got me thinking about other ways to solve my problem. Actually, this weekend I did a big project with lots of keyed footage with a few complex transitions. What I ended up doing was making all my timeline clips about 1 second longer on the front and back end than they needed to be. Then, I made compound clips. THEN, I trimmed them. This worked out pretty well. The only issue I have with this is that it makes the process of making accurate in/out points kind of irrelevant.
-Chris
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[Chris Good] “If clip A and clip B both have 1:00 of head/tail, then you make them a compound clip, you loose the head/tail. “
Right, as it stands currently the compound defines new in/out points.
[Chris Good] “This is what I’ve resorted to doing, but sometimes it ends up displacing connected clips later on in the timeline. (I havn’t quite figured out why yet.)”
Do you have an example? Do you use the break apart clip items, or open in timeline?
[Chris Good] ” For instance a transition where the keyed foreground & background clip, scale down and fly away.”
Yes, that would be a problem, in your video you did a transition, which you could put a transition on all cut points (which might not be ideal, I understand).
Have you tried simply stacking the elements as a connected clip as necessary (of course, moving some of the elements out of the primary storyline, and probably into a secondary). You could then dissolve in and out as necessary.
[Chris Good] “The only issue I have with this is that it makes the process of making accurate in/out points kind of irrelevant. “
Yes, I do agree that some feedback to honor heads and tails of media inside compound would be a good thing to send to Apple (or just send them the link to your video). Or at least, if you open the clips in timeline, it’d be nice to be able to extend the heads and tails without affecting the in and out in the main timeline.
Again, we need more control!!!
Jeremy
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